A small clinical trial has found that eating at night—something many night shift workers do—can increase glucose levels, while eating during the day may prevent elevated glucose levels associated with night shift work.
The study's authors, conducted with the support of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, stated that the results could lead to new behavioral interventions aimed at improving the health of night shift workers, who previous studies have shown are increasingly at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, according to "Daily News."
Researcher Marishka Brown said, "This is a well-controlled clinical study that confirms a potential intervention to counter the harmful metabolic effects associated with shift work, which is a known public health concern." Brown, who is the director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, added, "We look forward to further studies that confirm these results."
The unique findings revealed that evening meals raised glucose levels—a risk factor for diabetes—while limiting meals to daytime prevented these effects. The average glucose levels in individuals who ate at night increased by 6.4% during the night shift simulation, whereas no significant increase was observed in those who ate during the day.
The study's lead researcher, Frank Scheer, a professor at Harvard Medical School, stated, "This is the first human study that sheds light on the use of meal timing as a countermeasure against the combined adverse effects of impaired glucose tolerance and disrupted circadian rhythms caused by night shift work simulation."
